I Am A Hotel: Memories

Within “I Am A Hotel,” the Memories video depicts a high school prom held at the hotel’s ballroom. Cohen not only appears as a resident of the hotel but also as the singer-bandleader providing live music for the dance from an elevated stage. A stylized dance performed by a bellhop and hotel maid is Interspersed with the prom scenes.

The sequence is too artsy, too fartsy for my taste, but hey, as the American Bandstand kids would point out, the song has a beat and – apparently – you can dance to it (at least after a few years of professional training). On the other hand, the brassy sax solo does grab me in an indecent way, and Leonard as the sunglasses-clad implacable singer coupled with Leonard as the leering hotel guest encouraging the bellhop and maid toward the (titter) climax is as creepy-nasty-exciting as ones first illicit sexual liaison with someone a lot more experienced and adventuresome in bed.

This year’s [The Americans] Grim Montage was soundtracked by Leonard Cohen’s notably cheery “Who by Fire.” (Would prestige TV even exist without Leonard Cohen? Has any song in his catalog gone unused for this purpose? Can someone please green-light a David Milch series called Jazz Police?)

On Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the sinner’s fate is sealed. To be blotted out of the Book of Life, in scripture’s cruel parlance, is to be culled from the ranks of the righteous, and it’s this eternal exile to which Leonard Cohen turns in his 1974 track “Who by Fire.” The spare, tragic ballad, inspired by Jewish tradition, but attuned to fears of a more modern sort, forms the hardened heart of The Americans’s plaintive season finale, rising on the soundtrack as Philip (Matthew Rhys) and Elizabeth Jennings (Keri Russell) face an expulsion of their own. “Persona Non Grata,” in which Gabriel (Frank Langella) urges his agents to flee the country, forces these unwelcome guests in Cold War America to confront the question that defines the immigrant experience: At what point is the place from whence we came no longer the place we call “home”?

On May 21, 2016, the Chicago Shakespeare Theater debuted “Tug of War: Foreign Fire,” a trilogy of Shakespeare plays – Edward III, Henry V, and Henry VI. Part One – performed the same day over a six hour span (with three breaks). (A second trilogy comprising Henry VI, Parts Two and Three and Richard III will be staged late summer/fall 2016.)

But [Artistic Director Barbara] Gaines has purposefully split up Shakespeare’s three-part series, perhaps in part to make the point that war has no finale because we keep fighting the same wars again and again in each generation. To emphasize this point, Gaines adds a postlude, in which the entire cast dons those fold-up Christmas cracker crowns and sings a couple of choruses of “Why don’t you come on back to the war?” from Leonard Cohen’s “There Is a War,” concluding on the line “let’s all get even.” Nothing is finished, war just keeps coming back. Thus we conclude with a depressing but appropriate commentary on our inability to keep the peace.

Update: “You Want It Darker” is the title song from the new Leonard Cohen album coming out this fall. All information available about the You Want It Darker album by Leonard Cohen is collected and updated at Info & Updates: Leonard Cohen’s You Want It Darker

“You Want It Darker” is the new Leonard Cohen song heard during an erotic asphyxiation scene (definitely NSFW) near the end of Season 3, Episode 5 of Peaky Blinders. The lyrics of “You Want It Darker” (the segment of the song used in Peaky Blinders) follow:

If you are the dealer
Let me out of the game
If you are the healer
I’m broken and lame
If thine is the glory
Mine must be the shame
You want it darker
We kill the flame

“You Want It Darker” is the new Leonard Cohen song heard during an erotic asphyxiation scene (definitely NSFW) near the end of Season 3, Episode 5 of Peaky Blinders.

After watching the episode on Netflix, I transcribed the lyrics of “You Want It Darker” as performed in this fragment and uploaded them to the Leonard Cohen Facebook Page.

Update: Complete Lyrics of You Want It Darker as sung on album

If you are the dealer
I’m out of the game
If you are the healer
Means I’m broken and lame
If thine is the glory
Then mine must be the shame
You want it darker
We kill the flame

Magnified, sanctified
Be Thy Holy Name
Vilified, crucified
In the human frame
A million candles burning
For the help that never came
You want it darker

Hineni Hineni
I’m ready, my Lord

There’s a lover in the story
But the story’s still the same
There’s a lullaby for suffering
And a paradox to blame
But it’s written in the scriptures
And it’s not some idle claim
You want it darker
We kill the flame

They’re lining up the prisoners and
The guards are taking aim
I struggled with some demons
They were middle-class and tame
I didn’t know I had permission
To murder and to maim
You want it darker

Hineni Hinen
I’m ready, my Lord

Magnified, sanctified
Be Thy Holy Name
Vilified, crucified
In the human frame
A million candles burning
For the love that never came
You want it darker
We kill the flame

If you are the dealer
Let me out of the game
If you are the healer
I’m broken and lame
If thine is the glory
Mine must be the shame
You want it darker

Gang cultures exist throughout the world, but for movie and television audiences, they don’t always cross borders easily. Netflix doesn’t provide ratings, but “Peaky Blinders,” which starts its third season on the streaming service on May 31, is anecdotally gaining such traction in the U.S. to go along with its hit status in Britain. BBC Two announced Wednesday it had ordered two more seasons of the show. It also airs in about 160 other countries.

The series uses contemporary music by artists such as Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (whose ominous “Red Right Hand” provides the theme), Tom Waits, the White Stripes and Radiohead. Leonard Cohen wrote a song especially for the series that will appear in season 3. And before he died, David Bowie, a fan. gave his blessing for music from his final album “Black Star” to be used this season. [Emphasis mine]

Update: I’ve uploaded the lyrics of “You Want It Darker” – the new Leonard Cohen Song heard in Peaky Blinders – to the Leonard Cohen Facebook Page.

On the soundtrack during their encounter in the apartment, we hear Leonard Cohen’s song ‘Suzanne’ (Michèle shoplifted the album from a music shop earlier during her and Paul’s wanderings), the lyrics of which (‘Suzanne takes you down/to a place by the river/you can see the boats go by/you could spend the night beside her…’) form a poignant counterpoint to the encounter shown and implied onscreen. This is Michèle’s first sexual encounter, but given the importance accorded to Danielle and Michèle’s connection, it is tempting to ‘hear’ Cohen’s song as the reminder of the presence of yet another woman in the room.

From Identity and Memory: The Films of Chantal Akerman by Gwendolyn Audrey Foster

Cohencentric.com Hits Since Opening March 7, 2015

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Leonard Cohen’s Lost Album – Songs For Rebecca

Songs For Rebecca, a 1970s Leonard Cohen-John Lissauer project, was abruptly abandoned after several songs were recorded. Find out how it began & ended, which songs were recorded & what happened to them, and listen to a recording of a live performance of those songs: Leonard Cohen’s Lost Album: Songs For Rebecca

Leonard Cohen’s Passionate Version Of “So Long, Marianne”

Leonard Cohen has performed many versions of "So Long, Marianne." The 1993 Oslo concert rendition includes not only a radically different arrangement but also two verses not found on any album. The impact is dramatic.

Leonard Cohen On His Songs

In Memory Of Leonard Cohen

Since Leonard Cohen's death Nov 7, 2016, I've developed a list of selected articles and posts that are especially informative, gracious, interesting, or evocative. The complete list with live links can be found at In Memory Of Leonard Cohen

In Memory Of Marianne Ihlen, Leonard Cohen’s Muse

Marianne Ihlen, immortalized in “So Long, Marianne,” died July 28, 2016. She was a frequent visitor to this site and much beloved. Revealing posts about her and Leonard can be found at

The Cohen-Dylan Interface

The only moment that you can live here comfortably in these absolutely irreconcilable conflicts is in this moment when you embrace it all and you say 'Look, I don’t understand a fucking thing at all – Hallelujah!'

Leonard Cohen

Leonard Cohen’s Montreal

The best articles about Leonard Cohen’s Montreal homes and haunts as well as videos and a list of pertinent landmarks.